GUIDELINES 1 FOR THE USE OF THE FRAMEWORK CONTRACT BENEFICIARIES 2013 (FWC BENEF 2013) The purpose of these guidelines is to explain how to use the FWC BENEF 2013, and they serve as a supplement to the information found in section 3.4.1 of the PRAG which outlines the functioning of the FWC BENEF 2013. The Guidelines do not overlap with the more detailed CRIS Framework Contract Module Manual. They do not have any contractual value whatsoever. The only legally binding provisions are those contained in the Special Conditions of the Framework Contract and its annexes, in particular the PRAG 2013 General Conditions for service contracts. D e s c r i p t i o n It is a multiple framework contract (FWC) with reopening of competition between 3 Framework Contractors of the concerned lot, to provide short-term technical assistance assignments covering the entire range of project cycle operations with the exception of programmes' financial audits (which are covered by a dedicated framework contract). It entered into force on 1 st January 2014 for an initial period of two years until 31 st December 2015. It may be extended for a further 2 years. The FWC BENEF 2013 in itself has no overall contract amount. Only Specific Contracts deriving from the FWC have to be preceded by a budgetary commitment. Therefore, the FWC BENEF 2013 is only a "contracting tool" with no funding linked to it. C o n d i t i o n s o f u s e There are 5 main conditions of use: a) Operations have to be in the exclusive interest of Beneficiary Countries of EU External Aid 2 ; b) Operations have therefore to be financed by external aid funds (Heading IV of the MFF); c) The maximum amount for each Specific Contract, addenda included, must not exceed 300.000, in accordance with Article 265 RAP; d) the requested input per expert may not exceed 260 working days and the total duration of a Specific Contract may not exceed 730 calendar days, addenda included; e) The use of the CRIS FWC module for the award of the Specific Contract is compulsory 3 for all Commission services (headquarters and Delegations). All the documents related to FWC BENEF 2013 are published on the EuropeAid Development and Cooperation's internal website (Intranet). U s e r s There are 2 categories of users: 1. The European Commission acting on behalf and for the account of the beneficiary countries. 1 In the event of divergence between language versions, the English version prevails. 2 Governed by Part II Title IV of the EU General Budget Financial Regulation (FR) and its Rules of Application (RAP) or 10 th and 11 th EDF Financial Regulations. 3 There is an exception for Decentralised Authorities of candidate or potential candidate countries which do not have access to CRIS. Page 1 of 10
a. DG DEVCO (headquarters and Delegations), b. DG ELARG (headquarters and Delegations), c. Other Commission DGs managing external aid credits (FPI, ECHO, TRADE, ENV, CLIMA). 2. The Decentralised Authorities of candidate (FYROM, Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey) or potential candidate (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo) countries benefitting from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) under the responsibility of DG ELARG. C o n t e n t 11 sectorial lots and 1 logistical lot (lot 5 conferences) Lot 1: Lot 2: Lot 3: Lot 4: Lot 5: Lot 6: Lot 7: Lot 8: Lot 9: Lot 10: Lot 11: Lot 12: P r o c e d u r e Rural development and food security (6 contractors) Transport and Infrastructures (6 contractors) Telecommunications and information technologies (3 contractors) Energy and nuclear safety (4 contractors) Conferences (4 contractors) Environment (4 contractors) Governance and Home Affairs (6 contractors) Health (3 contractors) Culture, Education, Employment and Social (6 contractors) Trade, Standards and Private sector (6 contractors) Macro economy, Statistics and Public finance management (4 contractors) Humanitarian Aid, Crisis Management and Post-Crisis assistance (3 contractors) The award procedure for a Specific Contract must be encoded in CRIS, except when the Contracting Authority has no access to CRIS (e.g. a CFCU). CRIS generates the Request for Services to be sent to the Framework Contractors, the offer's evaluation report, and the Special Conditions of the Specific Contract. After completion of the mission, the contract performance evaluation is also done through CRIS. Access rights to CRIS are managed by USM (= User Service Manager); For the Decentralised Authorities of candidate or potential candidate countries which have no access to CRIS, all the documents for the use of the FWC BENEF 2013 are available through the responsible delegations. CRIS helpdesk Help and information requests about the use of CRIS FWC module should be addressed to DEVCO APPLICATION SUPPORT EuropeAid-APPLICATION-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu. FWC BENEF 2013 helpdesk Help and information requests about the use of FWC BENEF 2013 when it deals with systemic issues and not Specific Contracts should be addressed to DEVCO FWC BENEF EuropeAid-Fwc- Benef@ec.europa.eu. Page 2 of 10
A v a i l a b i l i t y o f t h e f u n d s In contrast to a tendering procedure, where a suspension clause may be added, no request for services may be issued under the FWC BENEF 2013 if no funds are available to cover the operation. S t e p b y s t e p 1. IDENTIFY THE LOT The detailed descriptions of the lots are available on our intranet website. The common sectors (assigned letters) correspond to different types of service in the project cycle (with the exception of financial audit of the Commission programmes). The technical sub-sectors (assigned numbers), indicate the main sectors of the lot. The lists of sectors of the lots are not exhaustive and the project manager can issue a request under a lot as long as the core subject matter falls within the sector concerned. For multidisciplinary assignments, the choice of lot must correspond to the qualitatively most important sector for the given assignment. 2. REQUEST FOR SERVICES a. Request for Services The Specific Contract within the 11 "sectorial" Lots may be: a global price contract (studies, reports, evaluations, analysis etc.), a fee-based contract (technical assistance; or large amount of reimbursable costs), Both of the above will based on a detailed offer. For lot 5 "Conference" a Specific Contract can only be fee-based. If an expenditure verification is required under a fee-based Specific Contract, in particular where incidental expenditures are significant (control of invoices), a specific provision will be determined by the SC Contracting Authority at the moment of the Request for Services. The Request for Services and the Specific Contract give the indicative starting date and duration of the individual assignment. The actual starting date is determined by the Specific Contract's Project Manager through an administrative order once the Specific Contract has been signed. The Request for Service is created and sent to 3 Framework Contractors in the same lot through CRIS, after having uploaded the following documents (templates available on our intranet): 1. the specific Terms of Reference, 2. the budget breakdown 3. and the evaluation grid withthe details and relative weights of the technical evaluation criteria for the offers. The Grid will also indicate whether an interview of expert(s) will be carried out as part of the technical evaluation and, if so, fix the indicative dates of interview and the position for which the interview is envisaged. The system automatically selects contractors for a given lot to ensure all contractors are consulted the same number of times. It is not recommended to send a Request for services just before a week-end or a holiday period. For lot 5 "Conference", the budget breakdown and the evaluation grid are not applicable. In case of ineligibility (conflict of interest, suspension) of a Framework Contractor within a lot of 3 contractors, it is authorised to consult only 2 contractors. Page 3 of 10
Any of the Framework Contractors consulted can ask by e-mail for clarifications during the submission period. The Specific Contract's Project Manager will answer as quickly as possible by sending the question/request for clarification and the answer to all Framework Contractors consulted simultaneously. He sets a new deadline for submission of offers if a substantial change is introduced by the clarification or has an impact on the preparation of the offers, notably on the identification of experts. The Framework Contractors contacted must send by email by the next working day an acknowledgement of receipt of the Request and their confirmation of intention to submit an offer. The Framework Contractors must submit this response, and cannot decline to respond to a request because of concerns they may have about their capability to find appropriate experts or a possible case of conflict of interest. However, they must report any conflict of interest or any other possible discrepancies immediately. If the acknowledgment is not received within the period foreseen, the project manager must contact the Framework Contractor concerned to check the situation. b. Specific Terms of Reference Prior reading of the global Terms of Reference for the relevant lot, ALL LOTS LOT 5 is required before drawing up the specific Terms of Reference. The Project Manager draws up the specific Terms of Reference for the proposed Specific Contract following the model available on the intranet. For the 11 sectorial lots, they will, amongst others, specify the required expertise or the expert's specific technical skills set out in the global Terms of Reference, the type and duration of the equivalent experience (in absence of diploma, equivalent experience which must be above the general professional experience duration fixed by category of expert), the number of working days per category of expert, the timing for draft and final reports/outputs submission as well as the timing for comments submission by the SC Contracting Authority and/or the Beneficiary(ies) etc. For lot 5: The Specific Terms of Reference will identify all the necessary inputs to enable all the Framework Contractors to present offers based on the same criteria. These will contain inter alia: the presence at the place of venue of an Event Coordinator normally operating from the home office and if necessary the support from Additional Event Coordinator(s), as much technical details on the requirements as necessary (such as the hotel class, specification for the technical equipment rental, conference kits content and quality, technical format of registration websites etc.) and the minimum technical requirements. The Specific Terms of Reference must comply with the contractual provisions and especially the Global Terms of Reference. It may not contain administrative information already present in other contractual documents. It should cover all the subjects foreseen in the model available on the Intranet. They must be clear on how the outputs obtained will conform to the inputs requested. Their quality and, in particular, their clarity is critical for the quality of the offers and the success of the assignment. If an agreement between the European Union and the Beneficiary Country partially or fully exempts payment of local taxes levied by the Beneficiary Country, the Specific Terms of Reference will contain details regarding that agreement and the administrative formalities to be followed for the Framework Contractor to obtain such exemptions. If no such details are given in the Specific Terms of Reference, the local taxes paid on eligible incidental expenditure incurred under the Specific Contract shall be reimbursed in full. Page 4 of 10
BUDGET CALCULATION The offers can be based either a a maximum budget : the cost of each item can be reasonably estimated, the financial offer above the maximum budget are rejected. an estimated budget: no sufficiently detailed information available on the cost of a given item (flying over a region by helicopter ). The financial offer above the estimated budget cannot be rejected.. The budget is calculated on the average of the maximum fees for a given category of the Framework Contractors for the given lot. These are available on the intranet of the FWC BENEF 2013. Regardless of the type of Specific contract, fee-based or of global price type, the budget breakdown will follow the financial offer template available on our intranet. It will contain, amongst other information, the itemised and strictly defined incidental expenditure items which are accepted for the assignment (e.g. number of travels ). It is not authorised to leave it to the Framework contractor to determine himself in the offer which inputs he considers as necessary to deliver the requested outputs. If the presence of one of the Management team members is required at the briefing or/and debriefing session "in situ, the cost of his/her mission (fees (expert Cat I), per diems, travel.) must be included in the budget. NB: Time spent on travel undertaken by the expert for mobilisation to and demobilisation from the location(s) of the assignment, as well as for leave purposes, is not considered as working time. DURATION The experts' man-days are always expressed in working days. The contractual periods are expressed in calendar days. The total duration of an assignment (i.e. the performance period of the Specific Contract) must be higher than the number of the expert s working days and must include the travel days, the week-end and the period of time set aside by the beneficiary/contracting authority for providing the comments on the draft final report. For lot 5: "Conferences", the performance period of the Specific Contract is the duration of the event. ORGANISATION & METHODOLOGY Unless stated otherwise in the Specific Terms of Reference, the Framework Contractor is responsible for drafting a Specific Contract Organisation & Methodology, which will include: determination of the quality control of the Specific Contract outputs, in line with the needs of the assignment; A description of any subcontracting arrangements with a clear indication of the tasks that will be entrusted to subcontractors and a statement by the tenderer guaranteeing the eligibility of subcontractors 4 selection of the experts in line with the requirements described in the Specific Terms of Reference; this includes checking the accuracy of information contained in the experts CVs; 4 To be always provided by the Framework Contractor in this case. Page 5 of 10
preparation of the financial offer in line with the financial conditions (in particular respecting the market prices of incidental expenditure and the maxima of the fees fixed at the level of the FWC); taking of appropriate steps to ensure that the experts proposed respect their availability. For lot 5: The Framework Contractor drafts a short assignment methodology, including the description of the services offered (5 pages maximum, unless stated otherwise in the Specific Terms of Reference). EXPERTS As defined in the Global Terms of Reference, 3 categories of experts can be required for the implementation of the FWC assignments: Category I, Category II and Category III. In addition, for assignments such as the evaluation of grant proposals, administrative assistants may be required. His/her job typically consists of administrative support to the team of assessors. The required experience should be limited to language and information technology (Word, Excel, etc.) skills. The Specific Terms of Reference will define the profile and type of requirements. The skills required may be expressed in terms of expert profile or expertise required for the team. It may include professional technical skills, team management skills, communication skills, and/or language skills as appropriate. The profiles should be clear and non-discriminatory. As an example, "local expertise" may be required but not a "local expert". Remember that participation is open on equal terms to all eligible persons. It is strictly forbidden to suggest the name/cv of an expert to a Framework Contractor by the Contracting Authority. Language skills Knowledge of a local language required by the Specific Terms of Reference's can be replaced in the offer by calling on interpreter/translator services, unless otherwise specified in the Specific Terms of Reference's. For the purpose of the offers' financial evaluation, these service costs will be added to the total fees. Management Team The Project Director has the overall responsibility for the running of the FWC BENEF 2013 and for any formal contact with the Contracting Authority. He/she (or his/her temporary substitute) is required to react within one working day to any communication made by the Contracting authority or the Project Managers. He signs off all outputs (such as studies, reports) required under the Specific Contracts and all reports on the Framework Contract implementation. A Management Team member identified as such in the Framework contract may not be contracted for the execution of an assignment in the Specific Contracts. His/her name is available on our Intranet.. However, in case of special difficulties he/she can intervene "in situ". Expertise in the lot 5 "Conferences": The services requested relate solely to organisational and logistic services, and do not involve any sectorial expertise. Therefore experts cannot be identified or contracted under lot 5. Only identification and contracting of an 'additional event co-coordinator' and of the services of a 'moderator' can be contracted under this lot. A speaker and/or a moderator may be selected by the Contracting Page 6 of 10
authority and this service contracted under the Specific Contract. In such a case, the Contracting authority must negotiate with him/her all the financial and technical provisions (e.g. amount of fees, content and duration of the presentation) and inform the contractor. The contracting authority will also have to authorise the payment of the speaker/moderator. The Framework Contractor, in this case, is not responsible for the quality of his/her/their performance. The Framework Contractor may not be involved in the selection of participants to a conference/event. REPORTING A maximum of 10 paper copies plus 1 electronic version must be submitted. The cost is already included in the fees. Additional copies may not be contracted using the framework contract. The limitation of copies does not affect specific material to be produced by the Framework Contractor such as documentation to be distributed to the participants for training (teaching material) or a conference. The cost for extra copies over the limit of 10 will be quoted under the incidental expenditure. 3. OFFER Unless stated otherwise in the Specific Terms of Reference, the Framework Contractor will submit: the Financial Offer, according to the Budget Breakdown template attached to the Request; the Methodology, according to the template published on the internal website; the CV s of all the proposed experts with their statements of exclusivity and availability; 5 the contact details for the experts during the validity period of the offer, in case of interview. For lot 5: The Framework Contractor will submit the methodology and description of the proposed organisation for the event, the CV of the specific Event Coordinator (and of the Additional Event Coordinator(s) when requested) with his/her statement of exclusivity and availability, the CV of the moderator(s) and respective statement(s) of exclusivity and availability, the financial offer. The deadline for the submission of offers will also be laid down in the Request: the Framework Contractor will have a minimum of 14 calendar days from the sending of the request 6, to prepare and dispatch by e-mail his offer. The Request may allow for a longer period of submission of offers, in particular to take into account factors such as the complexity of the assignment or the period of the year (holidays period e.g.) etc. For the lot 5 Conferences, the submission period can be reduced to 7 days for events with 15 participants or less 5 The template of the statement can only be used for the FWC procedure. It is required only for the experts proposed in the Offer and the Framework contractor may not have it signed before deciding to retain them. The statement is specific to the assignment and can hence not be a general overall commitment signed prior to the Request. Page 7 of 10
The task manager must confirm the reception of the offer. Failing this, the Framework Contractor must contact him to ask for confirmation. Offers are valid for 14 calendar days after the deadline for submission. All offers received, whatever their number, must be evaluated. The offers submission deadline means that offers must be emailed no later than midnight on the date indicated, time at the place where the Contracting Authority is located (local time). 4. EVALUATION OF OFFERS The evaluation of the offers is encoded in CRIS. EVALUATORS The Evaluation Grid will contain the details and relative weighting of the technical evaluation criteria for the offers (for lot 5 this is not applicable). Three evaluators select the offer with the best value for money. At least one of the three must have the permission EVALCC in CRIS. All the evaluators must sign a statement of confidentiality and impartiality. A template is available under the PRAG general annexes category (annex A4). Usually, one of the evaluators is the project manager and the others may be external to the Commission, such as a representative of the Beneficiary Country. Their names must be encoded in CRIS (white field) and they must sign the paper version of the evaluation report which automatically indicates their names. This document should be uploaded in CRIS. INTERVIEWS If announced in the evaluation grid; interviews should be conducted by phone for the experts envisaged of all admissible offers. The evaluators may decide to adjust the technical scores on the basis of the outcome of the interviews.(not applicable for lot 5). FEE BASED Only offers complying with the deadline for submission, the eligibility rules of the EU External Aid program which finances the Specific Contract, the maximum fee rates (including those in the Budget Breakdown of a global price Specific Contract), the maximum budget stated (if any) and reaching the 80 points technical threshold, unless otherwise indicated in the Evaluation Grid, are accepted. NB:Only the 80/20 evaluation is currently available in CRIS. The most economically advantageous offer is selected on the basis of a 80/20 ratio between technical quality (CV and availability of experts, methodology when requested) and the price (total of the fees). The technical score can be adjusted taking into account any interviews held with the experts if such interviews have been envisaged in the specific Terms of Reference. In analogy to the PRAG, if one of the experts does not comply with the minimum requirements his score will be 0 and the whole proposal should be refused. Therefore it is recommended to be very careful with setting minimum requirements and to leave space for grading the expert. For the evaluation of the price for a fee-based Specific Contract, the provision for incidental expenditure and the provision for expenditure verification will not be taken into account in the comparison of the financial offers. Page 8 of 10
For the lot 5 "Conference": Only offers complying with the deadline for submission, the eligibility rules, the maximum prices, the maximum budget stated and which have the minimum required skills are accepted. The financial evaluation will be based upon the total price. The financial and technical scores each have a weight of 50% in the final score. GLOBAL PRICE The financial evaluation for a global price Specific Contract is done on the basis of the total contract price. Regarding reimbursable costs: these must correspond to the services set out in the specific ToRs and to market prices. This last point is particularly important for a global price contract since no invoices from the service providers will be provided, correcting an unrealistic price which is however contractually accepted. CRIS calculates automatically the technical, financial and final scores. For a fee-based offer, the technical points, the fees + the lump sum of the financial offer. must be encoded in CRIS. following the result of the technical evaluation and financial offer respectively. For a Global price based offer, the technical points and the total price of the financial offer must be encoded in CRIS. For lot 5, conferences : the technical points and the total price of the financial offer must be encoded in CRIS. No calculation of the reports should be done manually. If no offer is selected, the project manager may, after analysing the specific Terms of Reference, change and relaunch a new version of the Request for Services with the same Framework Contractors and the same CRIS number. However if the Specific Terms of Reference remain unchanged (they are considered correct) the Request for Services can be sent to the other firms (for lots with 6 firms). The user has to modify manually the choice of Framework Contractors automatically selected by CRIS, with a compulsory justification. Subcontracting Any subcontracting within the specific assignment must be indicated by the Framework Contractor in the Specific Organisation & Methodology. In case the obligation to submit the Specific Organisation & Methodology has been exceptionally waived in the Specific Terms of Reference by the Project Manager, the Framework Contractor should nevertheless use the Specific Organisation & Methodology to describe the subcontracting arrangements if they are envisaged. The contracting authority may refuse the offer when it is deemed that the sub-contracting is unclear or unreasonable. This decision must be justified to the rejected Framework Contractor by the Contracting authority. If the nationality of the envisaged entity/sub-contractor does not meet the eligibility criteria and, if the proposed entity/sub-contractor has been excluded from participation in tenders by the Commission, the Contracting Authority will reject its offer. Page 9 of 10
Beneficiary approval If a representative of the beneficiary Country was invited to participate in the evaluation and could not attend, he/she will be invited to give its approval of the proposed experts before the contractors are notified of the results. It is suggested to inform the Beneficiary Country that in absence of a reply by the deadline notified to him/her, his/her tacit approval will be recorded. 5. NOTIFICATION OF RESULTS Within 14 days of the deadline for receipt of offers, the Project manager notifies the successful and non-successful Framework Contractors by using the template available on the intranet. There is no need to wait for the Specific Contract to be signed. 6. SPECIFIC CONTRACT A Specific Contract can only be concluded during the period of validity of the Framework contract. The Specific Contract is filled in CRIS. It is based on the highest ranking offer. It enters into force on the day that a version of the Specific Contract signed by the SC Contracting Authority is notified (by fax or scan by email) to the Framework Contractor. The Financial Offer, Methodology and CVs of the experts proposed together with the Specific Terms of Reference, form an integral part of the Specific Contract. The expenses are eligible for funding only when incurred by the Framework Contractor after receiving by email the signed Specific Contract (i.e. when the contract is in force). Two sets of the Specific Contract are sent by courier for counter signature. The period between sending the Special Conditions of the Specific Contract to the Framework Contractor and the start of the implementation must be a minimum of 10 calendar days unless a shorter period is accepted by the Framework Contractor who was awarded the Specific Contract. Confidentiality All the contractual elements relating to Specific Contract, notably the prices or the names of the experts are confidential and cannot be disclosed to a third party. The experts are a third party. 7. ASSESSMENT OF THE FRAMEWORK CONTRACTOR S PERFORMANCE After the end of the assignment, the performance assessment form for the Framework Contractor must be filed in CRIS. This assessment must be sent to the Framework Contractor together with the final approval of the outputs. The Framework Contractor will be invited to provide comments within a period fixed in the notification of the evaluation but cannot be less than 7 days. Following these comments, if the SC Contracting Authority maintains its version, it notifies the Framework Contractor of its decision. Page 10 of 10